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The Tale of Gregory (Part 3)
' ' 'Deeper ' ' ' Lost- ' ' The following day was one of opportunity for my new mission. All I had to do was track down a full grown- retired S.S.C member that no-one knows the location of or forms of contacting him with... easy right? Easy or not, though, I had to suit up again and make my daring infiltration into Scythe once more. I decided to show up earlier this time to keep things a bit less scary and also to get a better look at the place. With no sign of Negative and no problems getting in again, I had high hopes for what the day held. There were fewer troopers around the Father base this time and most tents were missing around now. I saw Devin approaching me from a distance and readied myself to ask some more daring questions. "Hey Gregory," Devin said. "Where were you yesterday? You just vanished after you had that chat with Justin." "I...uh... went back home." I said cautiously. Devin practically jumped out of his skin at the mention of the word home. "Wait!" he said with surprise. "You still have a home... what are you doing here then?" I was now just as confused as he was as I muttered softly "You don't have a home?" "None of us do!" Devin replied. "We have all either ran away, lost our families, or been dis-owned by those who loved us." "That's not entirely true," rang out a distant voice. We soon saw Justin coming up to us as he continued. "It is rare for many of us to still have homes, but there are a few guys who do this to provide for their families." "Provide?" I asked. "Provide what?" Justin spoke up, "Taking missions can sometimes lead to a small cash reward given by Trigger." Justin paused then looked at me with sudden surprise. "I get it now! That is why you joined isn’t it? To get cash to support your folks." "Uh... yep... you hit the nail on the head Justin," I replied. "Follow me," Justin said. "I'll get you a mentor to get things started." I waved goodbye to Devin as I followed Justin through the base. "Is that why a lot of the tents are gone," I asked. "Because people are taking missions?" "Sort-of,” he replied, but some people just take them down so that just in case someone wanders by our base, they won’t get suspicious when they see so many tents. They will all be back by night-fall." I thought for a moment as a burning question slipped out of my mouth. "Justin... if you don't mind saying, how did you end up in Scythe?" Justin stood frozen for a moment as if I someone had glued his feet to the ground. After this pause he kept walking and began to speak. "Pretty simple really," he said. "My mom died when I was only five, and my dad was a trucker, so he was always on the road. When I was 12, he finally agreed to take me on a ride as long as I didn't interfere with what he was doing." Justin stopped for a while as if he had trouble remembering. "Unfortunately, I didn't listen to my dad and I ended up forgetting to lock the back of the truck before we left a pit-stop. We came through this very town and that is when tragedy struck. The supplies fell out of the back of my dad's truck... he was so mad that he pushed me out of his big-rig and told me he had to go cool off and that he would be back for me later." Justin stopped as he looked sadly at the sky with his eyes closed. "He never came back." I was practically crying at this point but Justin still had more to say. "I waited for my dad to return for about a week, but he never turned up. I was so angry at him that I swore I would never go back home... he must have always hated me. Luckily, I was discovered by Scythe members who took me in before I starved to death... I owed them my life for giving me a hand when I had none." "Wow Justin," I said in a shaky voice. "That’s got to be one of the saddest stories I've ever heard. I'm sorry I made you tell me that." Justin cracked a grin, "It's no problem. You should here some of these other guy's stories... some of those will really make you cry; looks like we are here." I looked in front of me only to find a little house resting by the side of the creek. It would have looked beautiful if someone gave it a new coat of paint... or lifted the fallen, dead tree off of it. "You can meet you mentor in there," Justin said. "Just tell them that you want a mission." With that, he left me behind to carry out a mission that I didn't even want. "Maybe today won’t be full of as many opportunities as I thought." I mumbled. Danson- I decided that entering the house and taking a mission would be the only way I would ever be able to make contact with Big H, his brother, or Shadow. I entered only to find a short line of Scythe members waiting in front of a table loaded with papers of all kinds. Each member approached the desk and stated their name. This was quickly followed by the guy behind the desk asking them to sign a sheet. I signed the paper and was told to sit in some fold-out chairs while the other guys and I waited for a meeting to start. A few minutes later, a tall and skinny figure entered the room. He sported a beard which made me believe he had to be about 20 or older. "Hello guys," he said as he glanced over the few of us. "To those of you who haven't been here before, I'm Danson. I'm here to hear your mission plans and decide which of you I will take under my wing this week yadda yadda yadda." Danson quickly turned to the kid beside me as he asked what it was that the Scythe member wanted to do. The member replied that he wanted to go on a sneaking mission of some kind in order to retrieve food from a local super-market. Sadly, the other Scythe members had similar requests. Stealing either food, supplies, or water. It was honestly sort of astonishing that the entire time I had been here, the word S.S.C had hardly been mentioned. Danson finally reached me and asked what I wanted to do. I was without words for a moment, how could I make myself stand out among the rest of these guys. After some quick thinking, I figured something out. "I'm here to get some help in retrieving some S.S.C documents." Danson looked confused. "I mean... if we are going to figure out where the money is, are best bet is taking some documents. We won’t get are hands dirty and if we get the wrong documents, the S.S.C could give the money back in exchange for the ones we did take..." Now Danson looked happy. "Not bad, what’s your name?" "Gregory," I replied. Danson turned to the other members in the room, "Usually I take time to think these things over... but I think that Gregory might be on to something here." A couple of the members shot me dirty looks while two more approached Danson about what a terrible decision he had made, but his mind was already made up. Danson finally got everyone to leave and then proceeded to talk to me. "I think you may have the right idea with this plan," Danson said as he sat down beside me. "Tonight I will figure out the best place to capture some files. And I am pretty fast a getting this kind of information," he said quickly. "I should be able to contact you tomorrow at 9:00 to start this. Something tells me that the more guys we bring in to capture these files, the louder and clumsier we will be. How about just the two of us? We could make two trips to get the files?" "Well," I replied. "I'm not sure if you should come with me when I g-." "Don't worry!" Danson said as he gave me a pat on the back, I have been doing this for years. We will be fine. Don't forget to meet me here tomorrow at 9:00." "Uh… yes sir," I replied with a hint of dread in my voice. As I left the shack, I began to realize what a poor decision I had just made. Result of Lies- Before the day was out, I ran back to base as fast as I could to warn Spike about what my terrible lies had gotten me into. Most members had already left by now which would just make it all the easier for Spike to kill me without any witnesses. I made it to his office and he could tell by the look I had in my eyes, that something was wrong. "What happen-" "Spike I'm so sorry!" I interrupted. "I ended up taking a mission because I thought it would get me closer to Big H, but I... I think I REALLY messed up..." "Slow down Gregory," Spike said. "What happened?" I stuttered for a few moments before being able to continue. "I...convinced Scythe to raid our base and steal files that they could use... against us..." I'm SO sorry; I don't know what I was thinking! Some guy named Danson and I have to get the files by tomorrow!" Spike looked down at his desk and thought for a few moments. "I agree," he said. "This could be a big mistake on your part... but I think that it’s worth a shot." My spirit suddenly lifted as he continued. "Your plan might just work as long as no one gets hurt. I would be willing to replace our real files with fake ones. It won’t be easy but Luke and I will get right on it tonight... you could help too..." "I don't know... maybe I should get some rest before we sta-" "GREAT!" Spike exclaimed. "Let’s get started." Plans- The following day, I returned to Father Base and went straight to Danson's place. It actually felt good to have something to do rather than standing around and asking questions. Danson was already at the shack once I arrived. "I got some in-tell as promised," Danson said happily. "The S.S.C puts the majority of its files in a storage room at the back of an abandoned office building." I gave a slight smirk as I recalled Spike, Luke, and I setting the decoy files in that exact place. "We are gonna have to get to this mission SOON," Danson continued. "I'm thinking that we will get half of them over-night and the other half tomorrow night. We could leave at 12:00; there shouldn't be any guards around at that time. What do you think?" "An excellent idea Danson, anything you want me to bring?" "I suppose water, some flashlights, and binoculars couldn't hurt," he replied. "These documents are as good as ours; the S.S.C doesn't stand a chance." Danson stating this, suddenly made me remember my other mission: finding Tye. Finding Tye- I soon left Danson and thought long and hard about how to find Tye. I found it interesting that Danson was able to get in-tell on the S.S.C so fast. Maybe they could figure out where Tye is without taking much time either! Since Justin and Devin were the most trustworthy guys in the whole camp, I decided to confront them about it. I found Devin later that day at his tent and spoke with him about finding a guy named Tye who previously worked with the S.S.C. Devin asked why I wanted to know and I simply replied that Danson and I were looking for him so we could get answers. Devin said he'd look into it, but it might take some time due to other duties he was working on. And with merely 13 days until the attack, I needed to hurry up and get answers. The First Mission- Later that night I returned to Danson's place with the gear he requested. Danson was already packed and waiting for me at the door. "Good, your here," he said. "I knew you wouldn't chicken out." "I've been called a lot of things," I replied. "But a chicken isn't one of them." "Ha, let’s get going. Take some duffel bags to carry those files." I picked up two of the bags and the two of us worked our way to the base which sat quietly as it should be. My only fear was that a member would stay behind and compromise the mission, but Spike had assured me that every S.S.C member was well aware of the mission and agreed to leave it un-guarded. Danson weaved his way through the trees while I stayed close to the ground and slowly shuffled my way towards the front doors. "You sneak well," Danson whispered from a distance. "Have you done this type of thing before?" "Yeah, a few times," I lied. "I'm surprised that you find me good though, after-all this is coming from one of the guys who snuck in and out of the Menford bank with 14,000 dollars in your hands." Danson managed to run near me and shuffle with me along the ground. "Well... actually, on the day of the robbery I was... late... to the meeting. As punishment, Shadow told me I couldn't go." "What is up with that guy?" I asked. We now reached the doors to the front and remained visual as Danson spoke. "No-one really knows. Everything about Shadow's past is completely unknown. The same goes for Big H and Trigger. Some people just don't like to tell personal stories like that... especially not people like Shadow." With that, Danson carefully opened the door and peaked around for enemies. The light of the full moon drew my attention to a small fire-arm at his waist. He motioned for me to follow and I stayed carefully behind him. Every step was done with absolute caution; nearly 15 minutes had passed before we had even made it to the file room. Eventually, Danson gave me the all clear sign and we proceeded into the fake office. "Okay," Danson whispered. "Go ahead and start stuffing the bags." I listened and we son had successfully obtained more than half of the documents. As we made our way to the door, the pocket to my jacket some-how un-zipped and my S.S.C binoculars fell out with a thud! The binoculars were inscribed with the letters: S.S.C. Danson began to reach for the fallen object, if he saw what it said this would be game over! Danson was already too close to the binoculars for me to grab them, and as I readied myself for the pain that would ensue, I instead heard a loud bang from nearby. Danson's attention was immediately diverted to the sound and he quickly pushed me to the side and pulled out his gun. "Stay here, I'll be right back." I used this time alone to my advantage and managed to put the binoculars back into my jacket. Danson returned a couple minutes later with his gun still drawn. "It must have been a raccoon or something," he said. "Let’s get going while everything is still going according to plan." We quickly made our way out of the base and began the long process of crawling away. "I'm surprised how seriously you take the S.S.C," I said. Danson stared back at me as we continued crawling. "Are you kidding?" he asked. "These guys have been around way longer than Scythe has. They may not have guns, but they have experience with dealing with enemies. I'm not taking my chances with'em." I nodded understandingly as we quietly continued our crawling. Suddenly, I had the urge to look back at the base one last time before we made it over the hill. Standing vigilantly at the front door was Negative. Danson's raccoon theory wasn't as spot-on as I had thought. A Scythe Meeting- Danson and I reached Father Base around 2:00 am. I knew my mom wouldn't be happy when I told her how late I was staying up. However, Father Base was busier than usual and I found it difficult to find any place to escape. As I scanned the area, Justin approached me with a grin. "Danson is over at the house, talking about how well you did on that mission." I just smiled back, "Danson did most of the work, he probably could have done it all without me." "Quite being so modest Gregory!" Justin said. "We are having a little meeting by the fire tonight if you want to show up... but if you are too tired, I understand if you don't want to come." I thought about it for a moment but decided that it would be in my best interest to attend the meeting and learn as much as I could. And as I caught a glimpse of Shadow and his guys, circling Father Base, I was happy that I hadn't left. Conclusions- About half an hour later, a large fire was set up by some of the guys and about 30 people gathered around in all directions. I felt pretty puny when surrounded by all these people and hoped that nothing would go wrong. Danson and Justin found me and decided to sit with me as the fire was finally burning at its brightest. "When is Big H getting here?" I asked. Danson looked confused and then proceeded to laugh, "OH! Justin Probably forgot to tell you. This isn't an ACTUAL meeting, it’s just a time for all of us to hang out, discuss what we did over the week, have some marshmallows, etcetera. But personally, I hate marshmallows." "I am fine with them," I replied. "But I could really go for some steak, I al-" Just as I was about to finish, a couple guys sat down with guitars and began to play a few tunes. I felt like speaking, but everyone else was so quite now that I decided too as well. The two initially began to play a tune at once and it was pretty good considering the fact that one of the guitars was missing a couple strings. Then they unexpectedly began to belt out music that was surprisingly soft and enchanting. They repeated the word believe throughout their lyrics and I noted that it was definitely original. Other member began to join in the singing until I was sure that the entire Father Base was filled with the harmony of... Scythe members SINGING. I was absolutely astounded by what was happening here, had I misjudged them? As I looked into some of their teary eyes, I finally figured something out that perhaps I should have understood before. Despite being a gang (a dangerous one at that) and also being the enemy of the S.S.C, they were still humans, humans with feelings and emotions. They believed that what they were doing was right, like how THEM had thought it was right when it began battling the S.S.C because they felt it would become too powerful and ruin others' lives. I knew that I still had a mission to do... but I wasn't sure I could follow through with it. Warned- My energy the next morning was EXTREMELY low and a wringing headache made me want to just topple over; onto my bed. Danson had scheduled the second the second infiltration of the S.S.C documents to be at 10:00 tonight. My dad made my headache all the fiercer by asking 100 or so questions about what was going on. I told him everything except about the dreams I had been having. They had lately been the same thing; I would walk up to a mirror and suddenly phase through it as if I were a ghost. I would then see Negative's mask hanging on a wall. Just as I would walk up to touch it, the room would give a sudden spin and I found myself in a darker version of the same room, this one also containing a hung mask of Negative. The dream would always end abruptly after that. After my father's involvement in the Night Riser Incident ''I knew he wouldn't be too happy when I told him I was taking advice from a complete stranger. "If at any point this becomes too much for you," my dad said. "I want you to back out of this. This is an issue that my friends and I never had to deal with, and I expect you to handle this seriously... I don't want you to get hurt." "Don't worry dad," I replied. "My partners know what they’re doing. It'll be okay." I only wished that, that was true. Caught?- I left for Father Base at 6:00 that day and successfully made my way inside. I was starting to get used to these guys and I began to think that they began to get used to me as well. Granted, I still didn't poke my nose into other people's business, nor did I take a seat anywhere. Nevertheless, I was on my way to Danson's place when suddenly my phone began to ring. I had forgotten to silence it and now some of the Scythe guys were staring at me. I casually stepped out of sight behind a tree and answered. It was Luke. "Why are you calling me?!" I whispered. "You could get me killed if you’re not more careful!" Luke responded quickly, "Yeah, yeah, I know. But Chris and I were having a meeting over here today and we wanted you to show up." "I am already meeting Danson at 10:00," I replied. "Can't this wait?" "It should only take an hour... maybe even less pleeease." "Fine," I replied. "I'll be right over." With that, I hung up the phone and just as I walked away from the tree, Shadow and his guys appeared out of thin air! "You have a pretty nice phone," Shadow said with a smirk. "How did you pay for something like that huh?" My mind was racing and I began to panic as it felt like my heart was about to burst out of my chest. "It... really isn't mine," I stammered. "I took it from this guy over at... Blue Point... I was able to bypass the password and everything... it... comes in handy." Shadow looked me closely in the eye and just stared for a while. I kept the straightest face I had as he spoke once more. "Alright then," he said slowly. With that, he motioned for his guys to follow him as they walked away into the crowd of Scythe members. Without blinking or even breathing, I snuck out of Father base and breathed a sigh of relief. I then hurried over to our S.S.C base to see what awaited me. An Understanding- I rushed into the base expecting to see Luke and Chris already there, but instead all I saw upon opening the door was a table sitting awkwardly in the center of the floor. I took a curious step inside and the door immediately slammed shut. Behind the door were Luke and Chris who pointed me to the table. "What’s this all about?" I asked. "We're not... well... I'm not stupid," said Chris. "I know what you’re going through over there at Scythe." Luke pulled up some seats and we all sat down at the table. "Our last spy was the same way. He went in ready to take on the world. But left with utter happiness when he failed the mission. He didn't want to see Scythe fall... and neither do you." I paused for a moment. While it was nice to hear that I wasn't alone, I still knew what was coming. "We needed to tell you that no matter how kind Scythe seems to be or how innocent, they have still committed terrible crimes and are threatening our lives... you have to do your job without any feelings for this gang," Luke said solemnly. "I... I understand," I said in a whisper. "Everything you said was true, and I know things won't get much easier, but I would like to thank you guys for talking to me." Just as Luke was about to open the door back up, Chris shot up in sudden excitement. "OH!" he yelled. "I almost forgot. I want you to have this." With that, Chris pulled out what at first appeared to be a gun! Upon further examination, I found it to be a B.B. gun that had been modified and spray painted to appear as an actual fire-arm! "This is the result of the project I've been working on," Chris said. "It fires with much more force than that of a normal B.B. gun and perfectly resembles a SIG Pro semi-automatic pistol... Treat it with care, it's the only one we have..." Are you serious?" I asked in surprise. "You trust me with this thing?" "If anyone deserves it, it's you." Luke replied as he handed me some of the "marbles." Suddenly, a figure exited Commander Spike's room as I scrambled to hide the weapon. It was Green who upon seeing us, left the base with haste. "Does that kid have a unit yet?" I asked. "Nope," Luke replied, "It's pretty weird really... he is always hanging around Spike." A thought rushed through my head that Green might be Negative. But this idea was dispatched when I noted that Green was too short. So with new weapon in hand, I left to head back to Father Base for the mission. The Second Mission- By the time I made it back, Danson was already waiting for me. "Ready to go?" he asked as he handed me a sack." "You bet, hopefully their base will be just as empty as last time," I replied. With that, I sent a text to Spike to clear everyone out of the base as me and Danson made our decent. Everything was working out perfectly by the time we made it into the base. Danson led the way as I covered him from behind. As he approached one of the cabinets and took the files out, Danson made the sudden mistake to slam the cabinet closed on his shirt and just as he attempted to dash to the next cabinet, he slipped and fell hard on the floor. He was now fighting back tears as I noticed he had popped a bone out of place in his foot. "Are you alright?" I whispered. "Just get those files and let’s get out of here," he replied in agony. I wasted no time getting the files together and helping Danson wobble to the door. Suddenly, a small voice was heard approaching the room. "Is someone in there?" the voice inquired. To my horror, I recognized the voice as that of Green! Danson reached for his gun but I gently placed him aside. "I'll handle this. Sit tight," I said. Green then entered the room and with no time to explain, I got him in a head-lock and quickly threw him against the wall so that his head would hit a cabinet. Green didn't even have time to shriek before he was knocked unconscious. "Good w-work Gregory!" Danson proclaimed. "Let’s get out of here." Savior- With that, we left and although the trip back to Father Base was slow, Danson told me we could take a short-cut through town. I walked him back in complete silence and we eventually got to the road where Danson proclaimed he was ready to walk on his own again. I hesitantly let him go and he made his way to the road where (with no cars coming) he began to make his trek across. I looked down for only a second to tie my shoe when suddenly I heard Danson shriek in pain and his body fall to the ground. Soon a car came screeching around the corner headed in our direction! In the darkness, it was nearly impossible to see Danson lying there. I quickly dropped the sack and jumped a Danson before the car could reach him. My tackle was successful and as the car sped away, we both sat in silence once more, with our breathing quite heavy. "Gregory..." Danson managed to say. "You j..." Before he could say anymore, some people from a local store popped outside saying that they just saw somebody nearly get hit. I picked up Danson and with all my strength, carried him and the sack to a near-by alley. Praise- Once hidden from the people, Danson finally spoke "You just saved my life!" he yelled. "I've been doing this kind of stuff for years, but never have I been saved by a rookie! Gregory, you are some guy ya know that, a real hero!" "You were in need and I helped you," I said. "There was no other option." Danson smiled as I made sure the coast was clear. "Let's get out of here," Danson said as I helped him up. "This place gives me the creeps... it's too cold, I don't like the cold." "Sure thing, but no getting on roads without me ya hear?" I said jokingly. We both laughed and made our way back to base. Found- When we returned, Danson was taken by some guys for whatever kind of treatment they had in mind. As I readied myself to leave, Devin appeared out of thin air with excitement. "Gregory, so glad you made it man!" he said. "Good news, I found the location of Tye!" I was too shocked for words. "He works as the manager of a mall over at Blue Point!" "Thanks Devin," I responded. "You've been a big help. I'll try and find him tomorrow." With that, Devin departed and I did as well. With time running short, Tye was my last hope. I was finally going to get to meet a legend... but would he want to meet me?